1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a a new fabric structure of prolonged, indefinite length useful in making mop heads, with a continuous method for making such a fabric structure or article, and to an apparatus means for carrying out the continuous process.
More particularly, the invention relates to a mop head fabric material formed with looped edges or ends of the mop strings or cords thereof which tend to prevent or minimize the frittering away of yarn fibers during mop use or washing the mop head for reuse; further, this fabric is made in such a way and is of such a construction that the orientation of the constituent cords or strings is preserved in side-by-side adjacency throughout their lengths during processing and as desired during shipment until time of end use; still further the article of the invention is of such a construction that the twist imparted to the constituent yarns or rovings during formation is preserved until put into end use, and even during end use.
Also, the invention relates to a process for forming such a mop head fabric which is continuous in nature, and obviates the need for intervention by a human operator, such as in orientation or reorientation of the constituent yarns, rovings, cords or strings for further processing, to provide pronounced economies and reduced labor costs per unit mop head made from such a fabric so processed.
Yet further, the apparatus means of the invention relates to novel means for controlling the orientation of the constituent yarns, rovings, cords or strings during processing both relative one another and relative the constituent fibers thereof relative one another so as to maintain inserted twist within each strand element, and to maintain adjacency between succeeding strand elements throughout their respective lengths.
2. Background Information on Related Art and Problems
A mop head, by its nature, is a difficultly handleable and unruly article to make, to package, to unpackage, to ship and to market. One must arrange or orient the plurality of mop strings or cords substantially parallel one another before binding them either at one end of the assemblage or, if one uses strings or cords of double the length used in the mop product, at or along their midline with a binder which may be accepted by and fixed to mop handle. Such mop head products are readily seen in publications of the prior art, such as for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,625,857 (E. Jumonville); 2,035,130 (H. I. Klawans); 2,231,272 (H. I. Klawans); 2,238,432 (I. A. Myers); 2,300,821 (F. Weaver et al). Alternately, some constructions of mop heads use a binding for the constituent strings or cords at a plurality of locations between the midline and the cord ends or tips, such as are shown in other publications like, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,962,743 (Theron V. Moss); 4,085,476 (Theron V. Moss); and 4,364,476 (Theron V. Moss et al). Regardless of the particular construction, great care must be exercized in arranging the cords parallel one another and maintaining that orientation during processing the cords into a mop head. Usually, one is concerned with problems of disruption of the adjacent parallel arrangement of the cords, producing entanglements, snarlings, knottings and the like which must be disentangled, unsnarled and unknotted by hand or the product or its materials must be discarded as waste, a most costly venture whether by discarding or rearrangement into parallel orientation. This is especially vexsome when one considers that a mop head is formed of materials of usually very low unit value, and itself as a product is of relatively low unit value. Each hand operation or involvement therefore substantially increases production costs. In this regard, it is interesting to note that while the art is replete with suggestions for forming a clearly superior mop head by repeatedly folding back and forth textile strand material in the manner shown by Jumonville (U.S. Pat. No. 1,625,857), Klawans (U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,035,130 and 2,231,272) and others to form looped tips or ends to the mop head strands and strings, which permit the mop heads to be washed clean between usages without loosing fibers and frittering away and being destroyed in the process, as with free or cut-ended strings or mop cords, to the best knowledge of the present applicants little commercial usage has been made of such distinct advantage because of the extraordinarily high costs of labor inherent in their manufacture. Mop heads with looped cord ends, though expensive, are used in hospitals where one must either rewash between moppings or use new mop heads, but rarely in households where cut-end corded mop heads dominate the market and find favor because of cost. It is further interesting to note that looped-end mop heads are almost invariably made by sewing cloth or fabric tapes to hand-aligned, adjacent, parallel looped cords, such as shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,035,130; 2,231,272; 2,300,821; 3,962,743; and 4,085,476.
From these observations, it is clear that the marketplace has long sought a shippable, sheet-like fabric, having a stable configuration of a plurality of substantially parallel strands of textile material extending outwardly in a prescribed width from a center line of any desired length, which later can be processed to form by cutting a superior, washable mop head of relatively low cost which is comparable to that of the cost of cut-ended corded mop heads.